Saving Summer
by leaky pen
Summary: [The remake of Healing Her Soul] Summer Hathaway has been abused and ignored by her arrogant, drunk father since her mothers death. Can Freddy Jones really save her before it's too late? T for alcohol & coarse language. FS [New twist to this one]


**Okay, this is the re-make of Healing Her Soul. The other one that I wrote wasn't to my satisfaction and I'm trying to write it again with a better twist and hopefully a sequel. I've been promising a lot of sequels and stories for a while, so it'll probably take a while since this is only the first chapter.**

* * *

I'm a normal teenager. I'm sixteen. In a band. I'm rebellious. And (I can't believe I forgot to mention how _normal_ this is) the girl I'm in love with needs to go to rehab.

I'm Freddy Jones and I'm saving my best friend.

Summer Hathaway.

Summer's story is a sad one, but has so much contraversy it could probably be a soap opera. Her mom died when she was thirteen, her father is a victim to alcoholism, and she's his victim. He spends all of their money on booze and when he gets drunk he always gets upset and out of hand. Summer is always the one who gets hurt.

That's right, he _abuses_ her. Verbal and physical abuse has put her up to the worst. She's after trying to commit suicide more times then I can imagine. If it wasn't for Katie, Zack, and I catching her then she would probably be dead right now.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I'm not saying this with enough emotion or sympathy, right? Well, I feel for her. I hear her stories and her tears enough so that it's become a regular thing. She can't even get into her house without getting a bruise, it's sick and wrong, and I just want it to stop.

Summer has, like her father, turned to alcohol as a solution and I often find her drunk. She's so beautiful and ambitious, how could she do something like this to herself? But that's exactly why I'm going to help her, if she likes it or not. I'm going to save Summer.

* * *

I was walking to my locker that Monday morning in school when I noticed Summer leaned against her locker, back on and almost falling into it. I put a cautious hand on her shoulder and she jumped and turned around in fright. I could see her face, tear stained and smeared with mascara waterfalls that fell from her eyes. She tried to hide the tissue in her hand, but I seen it. The tissue was drenched in black stained eyeliner and salty tears.

"Oh," she sniffled, "hey Freddy. It's only you. You gave me a fright." _She's been afraid too long_, I thought, _afraid of life because of that bastard who calls himself a father_.

I smelt the sour smell of cheap wine off of her breath and I said, "You've been drinking again, haven't you?" I crossed my arms and leaned against the numbered blue metal lockers beside me. I looked down at her. She had grown tall but she was no me. I towered over her by a good six inches.

"Oh, Freddy," she said with a fake smile and a sniffle. "You know me."

I raised an eyebrow to this comment, but my face remained emotionless as I spoke my mind. "No, Summer, that's _not_ you, that's a _problem_, an _addiction_. You need to stop." Maybe I was being a little forward, but it was the truth and she needed to hear it from someone who cared about her.

"It's nothing," she assured me. "It's really nothing." Somehow I seriously doubt that. I really don't think it's nothing.

"You're lying," I added in. "You're lying to me. It's definitely _not_ nothing, Summer!"

"You don't understand!" She burst out, more tears rolling down her pale flushed cheeks. "Y-your mother isn't dead," she stuttered, "and your father doesn't abuse you," Summner cried, "and swear at you, and neglect you!" She pressed her forehead against the locker and started to bawl.

I pulled her into me and wrapped my arms around her letting her cry into my shirt. The bell soon rang so I lifted her face up and wiped off the last tear, put my arm around her for comfort and we walked to class together. Even then she couldn't walk straight from all the alcohol and tears diminishing her vision.

When we got into the class everyone was leaning against their desks talking to each other in groups. Zack was strumming his guitar while Katie played along on her bass that was strapped around her shoulder with a black and white checkered strap. Dewey was asleep with his feet on his desk and an electric guitar in his arms. I could hear him talking in his sleep.

"Dewey!" I said, shaking him. He didn't budge. "Wake up!" I yelled in his ear. He got such a fright he ended up hitting some strings on his Gibson, which was plugged into an amp, making the amp cry in feedback. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears and groaned from the shrill squeal of the _Marshall_ amp.

"Dude, Freddy, man," he said rubbing his eyes. "Chill out." He peered over to Summer who was only standing a few feet away from me, leaning on a desk and talking to Katie. "Is she alright? She looks really pale."

"No," I answered him, "she's not alright. You know the dad thing." Dewey just nodded his head and stood up, pushing back the wooden chair that matched his desk. It made a loud squeaking noise against the concrete tiles of the classroom causing everyone to look again.

Dewey took a step forward and announced, "To your rock positions!" It never gets old.

I took my drum sticks out of my back pocket and was about to walk over to the drum set when I noticed Summer start to lose her balance. Then she fell. Thankfully, I was only about two feet away from her and was able to catch her. But she wasn't alright. No, Summer was far from alright.

"Summer!" I shook her. No answer. Her face was even more pale and her eyes were closed. She looked really sick and tired. The black circles under her eyes gave it away. She almost looked dead... No! She's not dead, just unconscious.

"Summer," I called out to her once more. "Wake up!" I pressed my hand to her forehead. She never had a fever. Just cold. "Someone call an ambulance," I said, but everyone stayed in their places. They seemed to afraid. "I said, _someone call an ambulance_!" Dewey scrambled to the administration office to make the call. Five minutes later you could hear a loud blair of sirens and the paramedics came in through the classroom door, taking Summer from my arms where she still was.

"How long has she been out?" One paramedic asked, rushing her onto a gurney.

"About five minutes," Katie answered, her face flushed. "She has no parents," Katie lied to them. "She's been staying with me since the accident." I shot Katie a glance of confusion. She leaned over and whispered, "It would be better if we told them she didn't. You never know what her father might to do her for this." I only nodded.

The paramedics backed out of the room with Summer strapped onto a gurney and I followed, grabbing my coat as Dewey sung out, "Where are you going?"

"To the hospital," I told him, slipping into my black leather jacket. "Someone has to be there when she wakes up."

"She might not wake up for hours!" Zack called out.

"Then I'll wait," I said walking out through the door.

And as I was walking out I could hear Katie mutter, "He is so in love with her."

"You noticed too, huh?" I heard Zack reply.

* * *

When I got into the parking lot I ran to my car, stuck the keys in the ignition, and was out of there, following the ambulance. But I got lost at a red light. An ambulance is allowed to drive through a red light and beat the speed limit. Good job for people who like to drive fast, like me. But I think I'll stick to drumming for now.

I parked the car in the hospital's parking lot and walked in through the glass automatic sliding doors. The first person I seen was Nurse Lily Jones, my aunt on my dad's side of the family. When I flew past her she stopped me.

"Woah, what's the rush, Freddy? Why aren't you in school?" She wanted to know, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"That gurney that just came in," I said out of breath, "was Summer. She passed out and wouldn't wake up in class. I followed the ambulance here. I am not leaving her alone." I tried to push past Aunt Lily but she caught my arm again.

Jeez, she's strong for a forty-year-old.

"Summer Hathaway? That nice girl who lives down the street from you? But I never thought she would do something like -"

"Family troubles," I said in a hushed tone. "With her mom and everything." Aunt Lily just nodded and told me to wait here so she could check if Summer was put into a hospital room yet.

I sat on those uncomfortable pale blue hospital chairs in the waiting area of the building. There were magazines but none of them interested me. My mind was too taken up by Summer and what might or might not happen to her. I've been here thirty minutes and no one has told me anything yet. It's killing me, it really is.

Oh, here comes a doctor with Aunt Lily.

"Freddy," Aunt Lily says, "this is Dr. Rederk, he's Summer's doctor." I stood up and shook his hand.

"Is she going to be alright?" I asked him, almost in a panic.

"Thankfully, yes," he replied. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. "But don't you think Summer is a little bit too young to be drinking alcohol? She's only sixteen. Where she's petite all the alcohol she consumed couldn't keep her body working while awake. So she fainted."

"I know, she drinks out of family troubles, it's not her fault. I mean, it's her fault drinking, yes, but it's not her fault why she drinks..." My voice trailed off. I think I said too much already.

Aunt Lily looked at me sympathetically and said "We know, Freddy, we know." An instant image of Summer passed out in my arms can flashing back and it felt like my heart stopped. I hope that _never_ _ever_ happens again.

"We also did some x-rays," Dr. Rederk went on. "She has quite the bruises and sprains. Some broken bones too. I suppose she never did that to herself, now did she?" I remained quiet. I know Summer wouldn't want me to tell anyone. If I did, or if anyone did, her father would probably go after her again. This time probably even worse. "Don't worry, Mr. Jones, we keep things between our patients and their personal life confidential here."

I never told him the whole story but I told him that her father is a rabid alcoholic and is reckless sometimes. But that was all. My mouth is staying shut.

"Can I go see her now?" I asked him.

"Sure, but she's unconscious, though. Room 243."

* * *

When I got to Summer's room everything was quiet. All I could hear was the quick beep of a heart monitor and Summer breathing. I took a seat in another uncomfortable chair by her and leaned on the hospital bed she was in.

"Why did you have to do that to yourself, Summer?" I whispered to her asleep-like form, brushing a piece of hair that had managed to cover a bit of her face and tucked it behind her ear.

It was an hour before anything really happened. Well, I wouldn't know, I fell asleep. I barely remember Aunt Lily coming in to check on us both. I was sound asleep with my head on the edge of Summer's hospital bed, almost asleep on her lap.

Then I felt someone touch my head, running a hand through my hair and mutter, "Freddy."

"Hmm? What?" I woke up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and then opening them. I could see Summer there, sitting up in bed awake. She looked more awake then this morning. The hospital did good for her, she actually has some colour in her cheeks now. "Oh, you're awake. Finally."

"What happened?" She wanted to know, folding her hands in her lap. "Why am I in a hospital?"

"You passed out," I told her, still trying to get myself fully awake. "Too much alcohol. You _need_ to stop." Her face dropped. "How long have you been drinking?" She wouldn't answer me. "_How long_?"

"Eight months!" She replied, breaking down. "It helps me get over things," she replied in a softer voice. "It makes me forget. It doesn't make things hurt anymore."

"Alcohol," I took in a deep breath, getting ready for a long speech, "does _not_ help anything. Summer, you're my friend and I care about you, honestly, I do. But you have really got to stop. We're all worried. Dewey is going to throw a fit if he doesn't have his manager, Katie almost had a heart attack seeing her best friend being wheeled off on a gurney, Zack doesn't want you to do this either, and I think I speak for the whole band when I say that you really do need to stop, you're going to kill yourself."

Summer just looked annoyed. "What? Am I suppose to thank you now for letting you know not everything's okay? Well, forget it, I already know it. Stop with the speech, Freddy, you sound like my mother. And just because she's not here doesn't mean you have to be her."

"I wasn't," I said, standing up. "I always thought _you_ would be telling _me_ this, Summer. To stop drinking because I'm wasting my life away in the alcohol, but you know what? I was wrong. I can't believe I'm telling _you_ this. I might not know what it's like to be going through but you are but there are other ways. Court, Summer, put him in court. My mother's a lawyer, she can help you."

She put up a hand to me and looked away. "No, I can handle this on my own." Yeah right. I can see her right now, out in the streets when her father kicks her out. She'll drop out of school and never be the girl she's suppose to be. The smart, pretty, talented one who does a heck of a job managing School of Rock.

"One word, Summer: detox." I told her. She was making me mad now. Why can't she just co-operate? Doesn't she see what she's doing? "Rehab, you need it. A lot of rockers go there, and I think you're going to be the youngest."

"No, Freddy," she protested. "I'll go insane in there by myself. I'm _not_ insane."

"Really? Because the way you're acting now, with the alcohol, makes you pretty damn insane to me." I went for the door and put my hand on the knob. "Call me when you open your eyes and see what you're doing to yourself. I'm not saying you _have_ to go to rehab, but you can at least try to stop drinking and get your life back. Remind me when the real Summer Hathaway comes back, because I really miss her."

Then I left in a storm, closing her room door. I could hear her calling out to me but I didn't want to argue anymore.

I was gone.

* * *

**So? What do you think of the re-make? I'll be deleting Healing Her Soul soon, after I read it over and try to remember it.**

**PT-XO**


End file.
